Royal Picardy
Coordinates: 50°31′03″N 1°35′45″E / 50.5174°N 1.59586389°E
The Royal Picardy was a luxury hotel in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage which was built in 1929 on plans drawn by architects Louis Debrouwer and Pierre Drobecq and which was demolished at the end of the sixties. With its 500 bedrooms, it was at the time advertised as the largest and most luxurious hotel in the world.[1]
Characteristics
The Royal Picardy was a 9 floor building, 40 metres in height and had 500 rooms (all different, all with a bathroom), 50 apartments from 5 to 10 rooms among which a few with a swimming pool, 120 lounges. It was equipped with a 25 metre pool with sanitized and heated water, a fitness room, a hammam, a mini-golf, a squash ground, and phone in all rooms and lounges. Its garage could accommodate 100 cars. It was surrounded by a 6 ha park. The construction of this huge building started on November 20, 1928, was interrupted twice (due to bad weather and due to a strike of the construction workers), and the first rooms opened in the Summer of 1929 and the grand opening took place in April 1930.
Each of the large apartments has a master bedroom, a luxurious salon, a bathroom - pool, a kitchen for the meals in the bedroom itself, and room for the housemaid or butler.[2]
The building was damaged by bombing during the war, the Royal Picardy was closed for good in 1951, the city of Le Touquet purchased it in 1967. It was demolished in 1968 and a hotel school was built on the same grounds which opened on October 1, 1972.
References
- ↑ Le Touquet Retro
- ↑ Page 128 of the book Images du Touquet-Paris-Plage by Édith and Yves De Gueeter, June 1987